


All Things Being Equal

by shadeshifter



Series: Finding Home [26]
Category: Angel: the Series, Highlander: The Series, NCIS, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, But They're Going to Fix it, Kronos is the worst, M/M, This is the Worst Timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25378423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadeshifter/pseuds/shadeshifter
Summary: Dean wakes up and everything is wrong. Before he can set things to rights, he has to track down his team and make them see what might have been.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Finding Home [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/35285
Comments: 106
Kudos: 219





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Finally settled on something resembling a timeline between shows (better late than never). It probably doesn’t make sense, but artistic license. Takes place in Supernatural season 9, NCIS season 10, Criminal Minds season 12.

Dean woke up and immediately reached for his knife, unable to shake the feeling that something was very wrong. The air in the room smelled musty and stale, not anything close to the apartment he’d rented at Quantico. His first stable home in almost 30 years. He opened his eyes and fumbled for a light switch, eventually finding it on the wrong side of the bed. 

He sat up, dropping his feet to the ground when he’d grown used to the light, and looked around the room, trying to work out where he was. The bed he was sitting on was narrow and utilitarian and there was a chest of drawers and chair on one side of the room, a desk on the other, guns mounted on the wall. 

He couldn’t remember how he got here. The last thing he did remember was collapsing into bed after a long day working cases, but nothing that could explain this, not unless he’d lost a chunk of time. Scrambling for his phone, he eventually found an unfamiliar one on the bedside cupboard that opened with his usual password. He scrolled through his contacts, but all he could see was Sam, a handful of people he vaguely remembered from hunting and a handful more he didn’t recognise at all. 

He tried Tony’s number first, memorised from frequent use, but hung up when another agent answered. He tried Adam and Lindsey next, but both their numbers were disconnected. Bobby was the same. After a moment, he tried Sam. He didn’t want to interrupt the good thing Sam had going on now with Faith and the Watchers, but he needed some answers. It wasn’t a number he recognised, but at least he got to Sam’s voicemail. He left a message to call him back and then he took another look around the room, moving slowly as he did. 

That was his leather jacket draped over the back of the desk chair. There was a photo of his mother on the chest of drawers. The keys to his baby tossed onto the desk. This room was lived in, over months or years, it was filled with his things, but he’d never seen it before. 

“Cas?” he called softly, not entirely surprised when the angel didn’t respond immediately. Heavenly issues were always complicated and someone was always trying to step into the vacuum left by Raphael. Gabriel had started tricking the angels trying to follow him into traps designed to teach them independence. It was a work in progress.

Dean checked his gun was loaded, shoved it into the waistband of his pyjama pants, then took up his knife before he tried the door which opened easily at his touch. He looked first one way then another but didn’t see anything unusual or that would give cause for the hairs rising on the back of his neck. Closing the door silently behind him so as not to alert anyone, Dean eased his way down the corridor, picking a direction at random. 

There was a T-junction with a door and Dean hesitated a moment before picking the door, hoping it would give him some answers. He stepped through the door, taking in the large library, the desks in the middle of the room, and still he didn’t see anyone. 

“Cas?” he tried again. “I could really use your help.”

There was still no response and Dean was starting to worry. Cas usually gave him at least some sort of sign even if it was just a text saying he was busy. 

“Dean?” someone asked and Dean turned, pushing the kid up against the wall, knife at his throat. The kid stared at him with wide eyes. 

“Who are you? Where is this?” he demanded. The kid swallowed thickly, hunching back against the wall to make himself a smaller target.

“Dean? What? Are you okay?”

“Answer my questions,” Dean said, giving the kid another shove to make him focus.

“I’m Kevin Tran and we’re in the Men of Letters bunker. What’s going on?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

“Dean?” Sam asked and Dean glanced over his shoulder, taking in the longer hair and gaunt features, before looking back at Kevin. “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with Faith?” Dean demanded, frowning because nothing made sense. 

“I live here. We live here. Who’s Faith?”

“Your Slayer girlfriend.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked, edging closer, his hands raised in a gesture of peace although Dean knew it would only take him a second to reach one of his weapons.

“There is something very very wrong with everything. Where’s my team?”

“Your team?”

“Tony, Lindsey and Adam.”

“Never heard of them. I think we need to sit down and have a talk about what’s going on.”

Any number of possibilities flipped through Dean’s mind. Djinns, Angels, Demons, Tricksters. Someone was messing with his mind or reality or both.

“If you don’t mind,” Kevin said, trying to ease out from under Dean’s knife. Dean looked from one to the other and stepped back. He flipped the knife in his hand and then headed to the table where he and Sam hesitantly sat down across from each other. Kevin disappeared out one of the doorways. 

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Sam asked, searching his expression intently.

“Finishing up a case, nothing major, just a skinwalker. Crashed when I got home late from the office.”

“Office? You work in an office?”

Sam’s expression was incredulous, but it wasn’t the first time Dean had had this conversation.

“At the FBI.”

“Have the angels been messing with your head again?” Sam asked with an incredulous laugh, eyebrows raised. Dean scrubbed a hand down his face and sighed. Tony was still recovering from being tortured by demons and, according to Crowley, Lucifer had escaped. He didn’t have time for this.

“That’s what I’m beginning to think.”

“Okay,” Sam said slowly. From his frown, Dean guessed he was evaluating his choices. “So what’s the plan?”

“I need to find my team.”

“Sure,” Sam said, but Dean could tell he was just humouring him. He could work with that


	2. Chapter 2

“So this Tony guy. He was your boss?” Sam asked. 

Dean could feel his eyes on him as he glared out the window. He didn’t bother to answer. He’d already given Sam the basics when they stopped overnight in a small town that barely warranted the description in Ohio and he wasn’t inclined to reveal more than he had to. Not to this Sam who didn’t know the team, couldn’t imagine what they meant to him.

They were near Tony’s place now, and from what Dean had been able to research, it was the same as Dean remembered. He just hoped Tony was there and not with Aaron or someone else since this was looking more and more like an alternate version of his reality. 

He still couldn’t believe what had gone on in this reality, at least according to Sam. Purgatory, Leviathans, Trials, it all sounded crazy, but then he’d had his own problems with angels and demons and Old Gods. And Cas was human, which explained why he hadn’t answered Dean’s call. He needed some answers and then he needed to find Cas. 

“And you never found the bunker?”

“Didn’t need it,” Dean said. They’d had Lindsey and Adam, who knew just about everything there was to know between them. And for anything they didn’t know there was Bobby and the Watchers to call on. Still, he would be curious to see if his version existed too. 

“Pretty swanky place,” Sam said when they pulled up outside of an apartment block. 

“He inherited some money from his mother’s family,” Dean said as he parked just outside the building. He flashed a badge, fake for now but he surprised to find himself missing the real one, when the doorman looked like he was going to object. Sam followed him in. 

“What exactly are you expecting here?” Sam asked and Dean ignored him again because he really hadn’t thought that far. The rest of the team usually did the planning. “Dean?” Sam asked as they exited the stairwell on the fifth floor. “Dean?”

Dean stopped in front of Tony’s door, debating with himself for a moment before he decided to pick the locks. Tony definitely wasn’t going to be happy but at least Dean would be in the door. 

“Are you really breaking into the home of a federal agent?” Sam hissed even as he looked around in case of witnesses. Dean eased the door open, Sam following close on his heels, only to stop short at seeing Tony standing in the middle of living room, gun aimed squarely at them. Even in jeans and barefoot he was intimidating.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” he asked, voice hard and eyes cold. Dean had seen him a lot of things – angry, frustrated, scared, lost – but never empty like this, never brittle. 

“You’re not going to believe this,” Dean started, raising his hands in the air. “But I know you pretty well.”

“I tend not to make the acquaintance of people who have been on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

Tony’s aim was steady, his gaze unwavering. 

“That was years ago,” Dean said, and if anyone said he was whining he’d punch them. “And I can prove it. You like classic movies, music and cars. You’re not close with your family on either side, but your mother taught you the piano. You still play when you’re feeling lost or don’t know what to do.”

“That’s not exactly difficult to find out.”

“You got into law enforcement after you were injured, but it’s not the reason. It was because you saved a little boy in a fire but couldn’t save his sister. You almost left when you found out your partner was dirty, but Gibbs,” and he couldn’t help the sneer at the name, “threw you a lifeline.”

“And how exactly do you know all of that?” Tony demanded, but he’d shifted a step back and Dean knew whatever else was different, what he knew about the man was the same. It just made him all the more determined to get the team back. 

“Because I know you in an alternate reality.”

Tony’s stance dropped a moment in disbelief before he steadied again.

“That’s a new one,” was all he said.

“This was much easier when you were the one recruiting me,” Dean said. Technically his four year deal with Tony had expired but no one had mentioned it, Dean least of all. The idea that he was going to walk away was ludicrous. 

“Gave a good speech, did I?” Tony asked, a hint of humour showing for the first time. 

“You gave a few.”

“Dean,” Sam hissed from where he stood at his shoulder. Dean edged a few steps away from him, splitting Tony’s attention. 

“You two leave and I’m willing to forget all about this,” Tony told them, shifting further back to keep them both in sight. “Getting blood out of the carpets is a pain in the ass.”

“I would, I really would,” Dean said, edging a little further. “But I know what you can do, who you can be.”

“And what’s that?” Tony asked and clearly it had been the wrong thing to say because Tony had withdrawn again, his jaw firming and his eyes narrowing. 

“A good man,” Dean persisted, ignoring Tony’s derisive snort. “A compass to guide the rest of us, a support to lean on, a friend and a Brother.” 

He could feel Sam staring at him at that, but he brushed it off. Sam would always be his brother, but so was his team. They were family and there wasn’t anything Dean wouldn’t do for family. Tony was moving back again, though Dean wasn’t sure if it was away from him or what Dean was telling him. 

“You know, I thought the alternate universe thing was delusional, but now I know you’re crazy.”

Dean had known Tony to be self-effacing, to not realise the effect he had on others, but he hadn’t known him to completely lack any confidence, his worth so utterly squandered. 

“Did I forget to mention, we hunt the supernatural?” Dean asked, pushing now that Tony’s back was to a wall. 

“Of course we do. You won’t mind if I just make a little phone call?”

“We should leave, Dean,” Sam said, moving from the doorway. “Whatever’s going on, we’ll work it out, but we don’t need to do this.”

Dean used Tony’s brief distraction to get close enough to him to wrestle for the gun, counting on the fact that Tony wouldn’t aim to kill someone that hadn’t proved to be a serious threat. Tony was good, more than good, but he wasn’t hunter good, not in this reality. After some scrambling, Dean was the one who ended up with the gun and he backed up, aiming at Tony even if it made him uncomfortable.

“Where are your handcuffs?” he asked. 

“You really think I’m going to tell you?” Tony asked, as he knelt on the ground, hands grasped behind his head, glaring at Dean all the while. 

“Sam, find some rope.”

“I’m not kidnapping a federal agent, Dean.”

“You don’t have to, I’ll do all the work,” Dean said, not taking his eyes off of Tony because he knew just how dangerous Tony could be when cornered. 

“If it makes any difference, then I’m putting in my vote for no kidnapping either,” Tony said. 

“I know you don’t know this yet, but I’m terrible at following orders,” Dean told him and held his aim steady as he rooted through Tony’s drawers until he found one with some tools in it and a ball of string. He tossed it to Tony and waited until he’d wrapped it securely around his wrists. 

“All right, we’re just going to take a little walk downstairs to the car, and have a nice chat,” Dean said, grabbing Tony’s jacket and draping it over his hands to hide the bindings. 

“You know, I had other plans today.”

“Yeah, I saw your ticket to Tel Aviv and I can see you’ve already packed your bags. You totally deserve better than that bitch.”

Tony tensed when Dean grabbed his arm and pressed the gun into his side. He gave him a bit of a push and Tony started walking. 

“Dean!” Sam said, blocking the way. “I was willing to go along with whatever this was when it was going to answer whatever was going on, but this isn’t going to do that.”

“Either help me or get out of the way, Sam.”

Dean could see Sam working over his choices. He wasn’t going to be able to bring himself to help Dean, not when he thought he was going off the rails, and he wasn’t going to fight Dean when it might endanger the civilian that Sam didn’t think he would injure, not when he called him family. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Sam stepped aside, choosing, for now, to do nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Dean was happy for the respite from Sam while his brother went to pick up some food. Sam had been nagging him non-stop since they’d picked up Tony and Dean didn’t want to hear it. It might have been years since they worked together, at least for him, but he and Sam never did particularly well when it was just the two of them. 

“Not that I don’t appreciate the hospitality,” Tony said from where he was thoroughly tied up on the motel bed. Dean knew better than to leave him any wiggle room. “But I’m not really sure what you want from me.”

Dean had tried to explain what was going on, but Tony had only been nodding along to humour him. It wasn’t really a surprise given that Tony was basically a civilian before Lindsey and Adam had dragged him into the supernatural. 

“You’ll understand soon,” Dean said and then realised how ominous that sounded. “I mean, when we get the others, it’ll all make sense.”

Tony’s expression was entirely unimpressed. 

“Planning a lot of kidnappings then?”

“Oh no,” Dean said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I know how to bribe the others.”

“Don’t I feel special.”

Dean grinned, because whatever universe they were in, Tony’s resigned humour at the rest of the team’s antics was always the same.

“Can’t trick an honest man.”

“Well, thanks for that endorsement,” Tony said with a roll of his eyes. Dean patted his ankle and ignored the glare aimed at him. 

A knock at the door interrupted them and Dean was sure it was Lindsey. Sam wouldn’t have bothered. Dean pulled open the door before Lindsey could change his mind. It had taken a fair bit of convincing and the promise of information before Lindsey would even agree to meet with him. Lindsey stepped into the hotel room, gaze sweeping the room, but he didn’t do more than raise an eyebrow at Tony’s state.

“Don’t mind him,” Dean said as he sat down at the small, rickety table, “he’s just playing hard to get.”

“I’m not one to judge,” Lindsey said taking a seat opposite Dean. He looked different, harder and colder, but where Tony seemed worn down, Lindsey was honed. He was all sharp edges and apathy.

“He’s actually better than most of my kidnappers,” Tony said, voice light but his eyes sharp as he watched them. “And some of my bosses.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s grounds to sue your employers,” Lindsey said, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smirk. Then he seemed to dismiss Tony entirely as he focused on Dean. “What is it you think you can offer me?”

“I know your old bosses weren’t exactly happy to let you go,” Dean started and there was a charge in the air that usually indicated Lindsey was activating the sigils he’d tattooed all over his body. “I know you were working pro bono to make up for the things you did while you worked for them. From what I’ve been able to find after that, you quit even that a couple years ago when they started targeting your clients.”

Lindsey’s eyes narrowed and he edged his chair back enough to give him more room to manoeuvre. 

“I’m not threatening you,” Dean said, raising his hands. “I’m offering you information.”

“And how exactly do you know all of this?”

“He’s from an alternate reality,” Tony said, giving a smug smirk at Dean’s exasperated look. 

“All right,” Lindsey said, unruffled. “What information are you offering me?”

“I can give you access to the Men of Letters archives.”

Lindsey watched him for a long moment, expression inscrutable. 

“In exchange for what?” he asked finally.

“You come with me and you hear me out.”

“No strings?”

“No strings.”

Dean was confident once Lindsey saw what they could be together, he wouldn’t want to leave. They’d all been better together, covering each others’ weaknesses, supporting each others’ strengths. He just had to get Lindsey to agree, to be open to the possibility.

“Sounds too good to be true.”

“At least he’s going for the soft sell with you,” Tony said, looking far too amused with himself. 

“That’s because I knew I couldn’t persuade you, not without you actually seeing what we’re up against,” Dean told Tony with a shrug. 

“But you can persuade me?” Lindsey asked, joining Tony in looking amused at his expense. The teasing, the connection, it all felt just like he was used to.

“It’s the Men of Letters archives.”

Anyone who knew anything about the supernatural knew that the Men of Letters had amassed knowledge, secrets and artefacts the likes of which had seldom seen collected in one place before. If someone was looking for something on Old Ones, weaknesses or extortion, it was the likeliest place to find it.

“All right. I guess I’m in then.”

They shook hands, a much better way of sealing the deal than Crowley’s, at least as far as Dean was concerned. And he had most of the team back together.

“Great,” he said, sitting back in his chair feeling rather satisfied with himself. “Now we just need Adam. He’s going to be the worst.”

“Really?” Tony said, looking at the way he was tied up rather pointedly. 

“He’s the most paranoid person I’ve ever met and I grew up around hunters.”

...

Dean was just returning to the motel the next morning, coffee and donuts in hand, to see Lindsey step out for a moment, phone to his ear. He wasn’t too worried, Lindsey knew how to toe the line of playing sides to get what he wanted, but he didn’t actually go after people who hadn’t chosen the fight. Sam and Tony weren’t part of their deal and Lindsey wouldn’t get them caught in the crossfire of a double cross. And he wouldn’t do that until he got what he wanted. Of course, that left Sam and Tony alone in the room together and that probably wasn’t the best idea. 

He hesitated at the window, peering in just in time to see Sam cutting the ropes restraining Tony. A large part of him wanted to storm in there and stop the whole thing, but he also knew he couldn’t keep Tony restrained forever. 

“You can go,” Sam said, voice soft through the open window. “You should hurry, I don’t think he’ll be much longer.”

Dean could just about see Tony shaking out his hands and then rubbing his wrists before he got to his feet. His silhouette strode across the room, but the door didn’t open. 

“He won’t come after you,” Sam said, and Dean assumed Tony had stopped short of actually leaving. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“It’s not that,” Tony said and he moved into view again, collapsing back onto the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees and head bowed. “I mean, your brother’s totally nuts, but he’s trying to do the right thing. And I don’t know how or why, but he seems to have all this faith in me, and I don’t know where it comes from.”

“That doesn’t make any of this okay,” Sam told him, glancing worriedly toward the door.

“No, but I don’t actually have anything to go back to.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

Sam was hovering as though not sure what to do.

“I resigned in support of a man who is an actual murderer, who’s aided and covered up for other murderers, for a team that didn’t respect me and a job that ruined all my other relationships,” Tony said. “I was going to visit a woman who’s excluded and abused me. Even threatened to kill me.”

Dean sighed. He knew it was bad with Tony’s team before, when Tony had quit and joined the FBI, but it hadn’t been this bad then. Tony had still had faith in himself and the team he’d assembled. He hadn’t been broken. Maybe that’s what the difference was. Maybe everything was different here because Tony had made a different choice.

Adam had been given acceptance of all that he was, not just the parts that were acceptable to modern sensibilities. Lindsey had had someone who saw not just what he had been, but what he could be. And Dean had been given something solid to hold onto after Sam had thrown himself into the pit. Tony had been the cause for change in all their lives.

Sam hesitated a moment, awkward and unsure about how to deal with Tony, before he sat down on the bed next to him. With clear reluctance he patted Tony’s shoulder.

“Sounds like you might be better off without them,” Sam said sympathetically.

“Probably,” Tony agreed. “I just couldn’t face that all of it was for nothing.”

Lindsey and Adam were used to being on their own, depending on no one else. But Dean understood what Tony meant. If you put enough of yourself into other people, sometimes there wasn’t enough left for you.

“That’s pretty messed up.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“So you’re sticking around then?” Sam asked. Tony looked up then and scrubbed a hand down his face. 

“I guess so. At least long enough to give him a chance to prove his story.”

Dean grinned. He’d known Tony was going to come around. The man never could resist a good mystery. That would be enough to bring him in. The solidarity and support that the team provided would be enough to keep him. Now they just needed Adam.


	4. Chapter 4

Dean wasn’t really sure what he’d expected. Adam was squirrelly at the best of times and whatever was going on in this universe didn’t seem to be doing anyone any favours. Still, he’d expected Adam to be hiding out somewhere in the FBI, but there wasn’t any sign of him, not for years. 

“Okay,” Dean said, tossing what he’d found onto the rickety table. “Adam’s in the wind, but this is what I’ve got from before he disappeared.”

Lindsey was the first to reach out for the folder and spread out the papers. There wasn’t much; Adam’s FBI record, a list of the aliases Dean remembered, some news coverage from when he disappeared. Sam pulled his laptop closer, typing away as he ran his own search. 

“There was a body found in his apartment and signs of a struggle,” Tony said, looking over the articles. “Something about a case he was doing some background information on for the gang unit. I’ve got a few contacts I could reach out to.”

Tony didn’t move though and Dean looked at him expectantly. Lindsey looked between them then turned to look over Adam’s record. 

“And you’re not planning to kidnap him?” Tony asked.

“God no. I don’t have a death wish,” Dean said and shuddered just at the thought of it. Tony shot him a dark look but Dean just shrugged. It wasn’t his fault Tony was the only one who wouldn’t go after him with magic or divine fury. Besides, he had something to offer Adam. The Men of Letters bunker was filled to brim with things Adam could puzzle over for centuries and it was the safest place Dean knew. Although, knowing Adam as he did, Dean wondered if he hadn’t been a Man of Letters at some point. He’d been just about everything else.

Tony narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he watched Dean closely, evaluating him, peeling away the layers of him. He had always been a little too good at seeing through them. Finally he nodded and stood up, reaching out a hand.

“I’m going to need a phone.”

Dean didn’t even hesitate to give him one. Once Tony was in, he was all in, and he’d put his lot in with Dean so he wasn’t too worried about Tony betraying them. Tony stared at the phone in his hand for a long moment before he nodded to himself and headed to the other side of the room for some privacy.

“So he’s sticking around then?” 

Dean looked back at Lindsey’s question to see the man watching Tony as well.

“Looks like it.”

Lindsey made a thoughtful noise as he stared into the distance, seeming to look through the other man, before he blinked and focused back on what he’d been reading. 

“I don’t see any indication of our kind of thing being involved,” Sam said, pushing his laptop away.

“It could just mean they’re good at hiding their tracks,” Lindsey said. “I spent years doing it for them.” 

Sam gave Lindsey a sidelong look, but didn’t say anything further for which Dean was glad. Sam tended to dismiss their greyer leaning allies, but the team was family. They just needed time to realise it. So did Sam. None of them could do this alone. The last few years had taught him that. 

“So apparently the case Adam was working on had a leak,” Tony said, coming back over to them. “The man found dead in his apartment was an FBI agent who was part of the task force. They hushed it up when they found evidence that he’d been stalking Adam. The subsequent manhunt gave them no leads and currently they assume he’s dead.”

“He’s not dead,” Dean said with certainty. Not just because he had faith in Adam’s abilities, but because his death, his permanent death, would have sent shock waves throughout the supernatural world. “For every plan he had to deal with a situation, he had four times as many for how to go to ground if it all went wrong.”

Lindsey frowned as he pulled the list of names Dean remembered Adam using closer to him. He tapped one of the names. 

“This name,” Lindsey said. “I remember hearing something about this. I think demons have been hunting him down.”

“How close were they?” Dean asked, leaning forward on the desk as Lindsey looked up, expression grim.

“Very.”

...

Lindsey’s leads had sent them to a warehouse in Chicago. It was a little run down and there was barely anyone out on the streets. Hookers and junkies, was Dean’s guess from the few people he saw. No one who would take note of one more person among their number. Something moved in the shadows and Dean stopped, holding himself against the wall of the alley across the street from the warehouse. Lindsey and Sam stopped too, clearly sensing the same thing, and Tony because he was following their lead in this. Tony had tagged along to give Dean a chance to prove his story and to make sure nothing untoward happened and Lindsey said he was there to keep Dean alive until he’d met the terms of his agreement. Dean figured he was mostly curious and looking for a bit of extra dirt to use.

“Demons,” Lindsey said as one of the moving figures passed through the light cast from a street lamp and his black eyes glittered. “Black eyed ones at least.”

“You know how to deal with them?” Dean asked and the air crackled with power as he activated his sigils. A moment later he drew an angel blade, but with the way angels and demons had been running around this universe for the last few years, Dean wasn’t surprised he’d found a way to lay his hands on one. “All right then.”

Sam turned to Tony then, since their other companion had some experience. 

“Stay behind us, don’t get separated, and if you do, find somewhere to hole up until we can find you and draw that devils trap we showed you at the entrance,” he said.

“Right, yeah, got it,” Tony said, sounding anything but certain. 

“You’ll be fine,” Dean said, clapping him on the shoulder. Tony was by far one of the most capable civilians Dean had ever encountered. Even if he wasn’t hunter ready, there were few other people Dean would trust at his back.

“Because it’s not like my kidnapper would put me in a dangerous situation,” Tony muttered, but he followed close on their heels when they moved. 

It looked like there were only two demons guarding the place, but who knew how many were inside. Sam caught the first demon by surprise, knife making him flash red as the demon died and he collapsed. Dean grabbed Tony’s shoulder and pulled him forward when he stopped in place to stare at where the demon fell. 

“Freak out later.”

“Right.” Tony visibly steeled himself, shoulders squaring with determination and hands still steady, but his eyes were still a little too wide. “So, alternate universe?”

“Later.”

The second demon saw them coming, but Lindsey took him on, matching punch for punch. Finally, he tossed the demon against the wall, pinning him there as he stabbed him. 

The moment they entered the door the demons had been guarding, Dean felt the charge of some seriously powerful wards. He looked at Sam, who nodded that he’d felt them to, but Lindsey had stopped with his head cocked to one side. Tony watched them all, not sensing what they did, not yet, but with some experience he would.

“Any idea what we’re looking at?” Dean asked.

“Looks like standard warding for demons and angels,” Sam said, looking around the office area they’d entered. There was salt at all the entrances and symbols drawn on the walls. Far more than Dean could even hope to identify. 

“That looks Akkadian,” Lindsey told them, indicating a sequence of rough symbols scratched above the inner door. “And that’s Sumerian. I’m not too familiar with it but I think that might be the symbol for protection, and that one looks like secrets or hidden things.”

“Get ready,” Dean said softly, heading to the inner door. He frowned when the doorknob resisted turning and then it clicked and clicked again.

“Stop,” Tony said, voice sharp, and Dean froze instinctively. “Don’t move, don’t turn or release the doorknob.”

Dean nodded, remaining still as Tony knelt down next to him, inspecting the lock and the small gap between the door and the frame. 

“How worried should I be?” Dean asked. Tony looked up at him, expression grim.

“I see wires. How fast can you run?”

“Shit.”

“I can take over,” Tony said as he stood. “I’ve done it before. And I’m fast.”

“No, get the others out of here.” They looked at each other for a moment, but there was no reality where Dean sacrificed any of his team. “I’ve got this.”

“What’s going on?” Sam asked, tense and worried. 

“There’s a bomb. That second click sounded like it was being primed, but it hasn’t activated yet. That gives us some time to get out of here before it goes,” Tony told him.

“No. I’m not leaving my brother.”

“I’m not taking you with me, Sammy.”

“No one’s going to get taken,” Tony said firmly. “We’re all going to be just fine.”

Lindsey hesitated in the doorway and turned back. He drew his blade across his thumb and painted a rune across Dean’s chest. It glowed a moment before fading entirely. 

“Protection,” Lindsey said meeting his eyes. Dean raised his eyebrows and was met with a smirk. “Of my investment.”

Dean grinned. 

“You’re such a marshmallow.”

“Don’t make me change my mind,” Lindsey said, turning and walking out of the warehouse. 

“Come on, kid,” Tony said, clapping a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Dean’s going to need to focus. He’s got time to do what he needs to, as long as he’s not worrying about anyone else.”

Sam frowned, clearly reluctant, but Dean was relieved when he joined Tony as they left. He breathed deeply for a moment, preparing himself and then he ran. He was barely at the outside door when a blast of heat and pressure at his back knocked him off his feet. There was a flash of blue around him, blocking the worst of it, and then Tony and Sam were there, helping him to his feet. He wavered for a moment and tried to clear his ears of the buzzing as they backed away from the now raging fire. 

“You see anyone out of place?” Lindsey asked as they scanned the gathering crowd.

“There,” Tony said pointing at a hunched figure in a hoodie walking down the road, the only one not looking at the explosion. They chased after him as he turned a corner, but by they time they reached it, he was gone without a trace.


	5. Chapter 5

They headed back to the bunker when they couldn’t find any evidence of where Adam might have gone next. As they descended the stairs, Dean noticed a red-headed woman standing with Kevin. 

“Sam!” the woman said, giving him a tight hug. “Dean!” 

She hugged him too, arms wrapped tightly around his middle and he looked helplessly at Sam, hands hovering as he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with her. 

“And strangers,” she said to Tony and Lindsey once she released Dean. She looked back up at him. “I’ve missed you guys.”

“Yeah...” Dean said slowly, looking at Sam for help. 

“And you don’t even know who I am,” Charlie said going off his confused look and stepping back. She turned to Sam. “Time travel? Amnesia?”

“The working theory is alternate universe,” Sam told her with a shrug. 

“And you want me to find a way to send you back?” she asked, already pulling her laptop out of her bag and putting it on the table. 

“Adam first,” Dean insisted. He needed his team, they were his family, and he and Sam never did well when it was just them. When he left, this him and this Sam would need them too. This Bobby was dead, so they didn’t have anyone who could call them on their shit that they would actually listen to. And the team were alone here, all of them, they needed each other too.

“You wanted to track down this friend of yours. Charlie’s the best hacker we know. She’s a woman of letters,” Sam said, resting a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and smiling at her. 

“He’s not going to be easy to find,” Dean told her, heading over the where he’d put the file he’d gathered on Adam.

“I’ve already tried,” Kevin added, settling down opposite Charlie at the table. “The guy’s a ghost.”

“Well lets see if I can work a little magic,” Charlie said, cracking her knuckles before she got down to work.

“Magic?” Tony asked faintly.

“Not actual magic,” Lindsey told him. “Not unless she’s a technopagan.”

“Of course.”

“Wait, technopagans are actually a thing,” Charlie said, looking up, eyes bright. “I’ll have to look into that. But later. After I’ve found your friend. And looked up how to travel alternate realities.”

“Is there somewhere I can wash up?” Tony asked, looking pale and overwhelmed. Dean was sure he was going to freak out in private, put a confident mask back on and pretend everything was fine. Trying to take that away from him wouldn’t help him, but letting him feel in control of something would, even if it was just himself. 

“I’ll show you,” Sam said, gesturing through one of the doors. 

Lindsey was already looking through the bookcases, the beginnings of a small stack in his hands. Dean left him to it. He knew better than to get between Lindsey and new knowledge. The guy could be such a nerd sometimes. 

Dean handed Charlie the file and then sat down next to her, not wanting to be too far when she got the information. She was silent for a moment before she gave Dean a sidelong look. 

“So you never met me in your universe?” 

“Nope.”

“No Dick Roman? No Leviathans?”

“Nope.”

“Must have been nice.”

“I don’t know,” Dean told her. “There was an angel war and Old Ones and demons. We had plenty to keep us busy.”

“I wonder where I am. Maybe I have my own start up,” Charlie said thoughtfully. “Although I probably have a nine to five IT job. I probably never discovered hunting. I must be so bored.”

“You’re probably safe.”

“Safe is overrated.”

“I get that,” Dean said, watching Charlie as she typed rapidly on her laptop and wondering how she fit into this universe’s Dean’s life. Sam had called her a Woman of Letters which meant that they must trust her, it meant she must be family. 

Something changed in the room, a shift in the air, a sound too soft for him to hear, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. 

“Tessa?” Dean rose from his seat, not sure what to expect. The reaper stood at the end of the table, looking exactly the same as the last time Dean had seen her. Sam wandered back into the room without Tony.

“Bartholomew has contracted some reapers to hunt down Castiel,” she said, not wasting any time on greetings. 

“Where?” 

Castiel was what was important. The rest of it could wait until Cas was back with them.

“Who’s Bartholomew?” Charlie asked as she looked between the two of them.

“Castiel’s in Detroit.” Tessa glanced at Charlie before dismissing her and looking back at Dean. “Bartholomew is trying to organise the angels.”

He’d never heard of a Bartholomew. Obviously, with the angels still looking to Gabriel and Adam for guidance, Metatron hadn’t been able to shut down Heaven and whoever this Bartholomew was hadn’t been able to rise to power. 

“We should have stayed in Chicago,” Dean said. It would have taken only a few hours to get to Detroit then instead of all night. 

“If we leave now, we can be there first thing in the morning,” Lindsey added, coming to stand at Dean’s side.

“You’re coming with?”

Lindsey was turning over a new leaf, he had been working pro bono, trying to do the right thing, but he wasn’t selfless and he wasn’t used to working with a team. And if the Old Ones put him in a corner, he was just as likely to lash out at friends as foes.

“Having an angel owe you a favour isn’t a small thing, and I could always use a little divine assistance,” Lindsey said with a smirk.

“He’s human now.”

“Doesn’t mean he’ll stay that way.”

Lindsey shrugged, meeting Dean’s gaze evenly. This Lindsey had to have heard of the Winchesters and how far they’d go for family. And he knew enough to know Cas was as much family as Sam. 

Charlie looked between them all, her gaze suspicious, but her faith in him seemed solid when she simply said, “I’ll let you know as soon as I find something on Adam.”

“We’ll be back as soon as we’ve got Cas.”

She nodded and turned determinedly back to her work.

“Let’s go,” Sam said. 

...

Dean didn’t waste any time once they got to the address Tessa had given them. He aimed just next to the apartment’s door handle and gave a hard kick. The wood splintered and the door fell open and Dean rushed through, Sam and Lindsey on his heels. 

“Cas!”

The angel-turned-human was tied to a chair, looking very much the worse for wear. A woman loomed over him with an angel blade aimed at Cas’s stomach. She looked at him briefly, her expression twisting with anger, and she plunged the blade into Cas before Dean could reach them. The sound Cas made was halfway between a rasp and a gurgle, a hollow, desperate sound that Dean was fairly certain was going to haunt him for a long time.

Dean launched himself at her, blind to everything but making the angel hurt for what she’d done. The faster she was dealt with, the faster they could tend to Cas. She knocked him out of the way with a flick of her fingers and he flew across the room, hitting the wall hard and sliding to the floor. He looked up to see the angel advancing on a downed Sam while Lindsey was doing something in the kitchen. 

“Looks like this girl is popular with all the boys,” the angel said as Sam struggled to get up. She hit him hard, before he’d fully regained his feet again, and he collapsed again, unmoving. 

Dean readied himself to lunge at her again when Lindsey got there first. He pushed her against the wall, holding her there with the strength of his sigils. In one hand, he had an angel blade, in the other what looked to be a jar. 

“You can’t,” she said, eyes wide and fearful, as Lindsey drew the blade across her throat and cutting shallowly. Her grace poured into the jar until it was filled. He stabbed her then and let her slide down the wall to the floor. Dean turned away from her since she seemed to have been dealt with and went to Cas, crouching in front of him.

“Cas? Cas!” he said, cupping cheeks and hoping for some reaction, but Cas was limp and unresponsive. 

Lindsey came to stand beside him and held the jar to Cas’s face. Nothing happened for a long moment, and then Cas breathed in and the grace flowed into him. Cas opened his mouth in a silent scream and his mouth and eyes glowed briefly. Dean watched Cas breathe shallowly for a moment, before the angel opened his eyes. 

“Dean,” Cas said, staring at him with that singular focus he had.

“Yeah, I’m here.” 

He gripped Cas’s hands in his. Whatever universe or timeline he was in, Cas was always Cas. 

“And Sam.”

“Cas? You’re okay?” Sam asked, climbing slowly to his feet and shaking his head to clear it.

“Never do that again,” Dean told Cas, who smiled not so much with his mouth as with his eyes.

“Alright.”

“Cas,” Dean said, helping Cas to his feet and not letting go. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too, Dean,” Cas said, leaning into him a little like he always did. Dean grinned, glad at least something about this place was the same. He pulled Cas closer and pressed his lips to the angel’s, brief and light, smiling when Cas crowded in close to him like he was seeking warmth. “Dean?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve never kissed me before,” Cas said with the frown that meant he was trying to puzzle out humans, but especially Dean. 

“This me is an idiot.”

“Sometimes.”

Dean laughed, not letting go of Cas even though he had grace again, borrowed as it was, and didn’t really need his support. The angel didn’t let him go either, but then it was usually Dean that had done the pushing away and Cas accepting his boundaries.

“Your universe is a very different place,” Sam said, wide-eyed but not accusing. 

Dean didn’t bother replying, didn’t want to deal with the confrontation, and was rather glad when his phone rang. He glanced at it briefly to see Charlie’s name on the screen.

“Charlie?” he asked. 

“Your friend’s in Vancouver,” she said without preamble. “I’ll text you the address.”

“You’re kinda awesome.”

Dean really was growing to like her. He’d have to look into tracking down his version of her when he got back.

“I know,” she said, sounding pleased.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean approached the building cautiously. Sam, Lindsey and Cas were at his back as they made their way through the quiet lobby and up the stairs. The higher up they went, the quieter the building around them became. By the time they reached the top floor it was practically silent. They headed slowly down the hallway, Lindsey and Sam taking up the rear and making sure no one could come up behind them.

“That’s where Charlie said he’d be,” Dean said quietly as he nodded to the door at the end of the hallway.

“What’s the plan?” Lindsey asked and Dean looked at him for a moment before he remembered that this Lindsey didn’t really know him.

“We go in and get him.”

“Of course that’s the plan,” Lindsey said like he couldn’t believe he’d volunteered for this. Dean grinned at him, all too aware of Sam watching the byplay between them curiously.

“Too late to back out now,” he said, clapping Lindsey on the shoulder before continuing on toward Adam’s door.

“It’s never too late.”

“You’d be bored out of your mind without us.”

Lindsey grunted but didn’t otherwise reply which Dean took to be answer enough. It was good to have most of the team back together again, even if Tony was still dealing and Adam was being stubborn. Once they were all together they would know how to get him back and this universe’s Dean wouldn’t have to bear the weight of the world on only his and Sam’s shoulders.

He headed to door at the end of the hallway, stopping just in front of it. His first instinct was to kick it open, but after last time that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. It would help if Tony was with them, but Adam also didn’t like being too predictable, so there probably wasn’t another bomb.

“Cas, can you pop to the other side of the door and check if it’s trapped?” 

“Wait,” Lindsey said, stepping forward to look more closely at the door frame. “It’s warded. Against angels.” He traced several runes and then followed them along the frame. “And demons. Ghosts. Remote surveillance. Gods.”

“I don’t think he wants to be found,” Sam said. 

“He only thinks he doesn’t want to be found. He doesn’t know who’s looking for him yet,” Dean told him. Sam raised his eyebrows, looking at Dean sidelong. 

“Because that makes sense.” Lindsey stepped back and leaned against the wall, looking at Dean expectantly, waiting to see what he’d do now.

Dean ignored them both. He raised a fist and knocked on the door. Adam opened it a moment later, like he’d been expecting them.

“Not very subtle, are you? You didn’t even trigger the shotgun.” 

Despite the attempt at his usual humour, Adam looked narrow-eyed and tense. Tired in a way Dean had never seen him and thinner than he could probably afford to be. Whatever he was running from, it had done a number on him. 

“And yet you answered the door.”

Adam shrugged, looking past him to Lindsey and then lingering on Sam for a moment.

“He wouldn’t send the Winchesters to do his dirty work.”

“He?”

“So why exactly have you put so much effort into tracking me down?”

“Because we’re as close as family in an alternate universe,” Dean said, not even bothering to lie. Adam wouldn’t believe him if he tried, but the truth might just be strange enough to get him to listen.

“An alternate universe.”

“Where we know what you are, what they did to you,” Dean said, looking upward.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Adam said, fairly convincingly, but he wasn’t closing the door either. Dean figured he could use someone on his side. 

“Brother,” a voice said from the stairwell door. “You’re a difficult man to find.”

Kronos strode forward and Adam straightened out of his unassuming slouch. Dean was used to the two men arguing, but he’d never really seen them at odds, not when Kronos was in his right mind. He was tempted to stand between the two, protect Adam from the demon who’d hunted him until he was a shadow of himself. But Adam was already stepping forward, drawing Kronos’ attention to him, not that it had ever drifted away. He'd always been terrible at pretending not the care about anyone, especially people he thought were innocent.

“Brother,” Adam said, voice deceptively light as he shoved his hands into his pockets where Dean knew he kept a gun. He was so similar to how Dean remembered him, especially at the beginning. Wary and prickly despite his appearance of openness and ease. When his secrets had secrets and most of them were likely to get someone killed. Their trust in each other had been hard won and all the more unshakeable for it.

“Are you done playing hard to get?” Kronos asked, dismissing them entirely as he focused on Adam. He stalked forward until they were eye to eye, barely inches apart. As always when the two men were near each other, everyone else ceased to be important.

“Brother?” Lindsey said in a low voice. Dean shook his head. There was no way he was going to try to explain Adam and Kronos, not even when the version of them he knew sort of made sense. 

“What makes you think I’m playing?” Adam’s expression was coy, his mouth curled in the faintest smirk, but his eyes were hard and his shoulders were back.

“You’re always playing. Sides, odds, with fire, the Game. It’s all the same to you,” Kronos said, and his step forward was matched with Adam’s step back. There was none of the back and forth, give and take, Dean had come to expect between the two men. Instead of a dance, it was a fight.

“Then you should know the answer.” Adam’s stance shifted as he took another step back and Dean gestured to the others to be ready, recognising immediately that Adam was planning something.

“Come now, Brother,” Kronos said, tone cajoling even as his tense shoulders and the way his fingers twitched to draw a weapon betrayed his impatience. “It’s inevitable, me and you, Pestilence and Death.”

“We both know better than that.”

“You always did like to make things difficult.”

“I always thought it was quite simple.”

Kronos rolled his eyes at that and Dean had to agree as much as he hated having anything in common with a demon. There was nothing simple or straightforward about Adam. Everything had double meanings or hidden truths, the only difference was Dean knew Adam was using his powers for good these days, or at least, the good of the team.

“There’s more to life than beer and books.”

“Of course,” Adam said agreeably. “There’s also contingency plans.”

There was the sharp retort of a gun and Dean drew his own, aiming at Kronos before realising that he wasn’t the threat. Kronos barely blinked at the wound that had appeared at his chest, a smirk curving his mouth. 

“Really Brother?”

Kronos paused, hand going to the wound when it started to spark and he dropped, writhing on the ground. A moment later, black smoke poured from the host’s mouth as Kronos fled. Adam slouched, reducing the appearance of threat he posed, even if not the reality.

“Now if you gentlemen have been entertained enough for the evening, I’ll take my leave before he finds his way back,” Adam said, turning to walk away.

“Wait,” Dean said, stepping forward. “We just want to talk.”

Adam paused but didn’t turn.

“I’ll have my people contact your people,” he threw back over his shoulder as he continued on his way.

Dean strode forward, intent on getting Adam to listen to him, when his way was blocked by a number of men and women coming out of the apartments along the hallway, their distorted faces indicating the presence of demonic vampires. He sighed, frustrated.

“McDonald,” one of the vampires said.

“Kenny,” Lindsey said, the air around them becoming charged as Lindsey activated his sigils.

“Kenneth Hastings the third,” the vampire corrected with all the haughtiness Dean would associate with the name.

“They’re with Wolfram and Hart,” Lindsey told Dean, not looking away from the vampires.

“Contingencies.” Because of course Adam wouldn’t have only one. He caught the machete Sam tossed to him. “Okay, Kenny, lets do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry, they don’t spend the whole fic chasing Methos.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a discouraged Dean that returned to the bunker. Adam would dig in even deeper and disappear completely. He’d lost his chance to bring the full team together. He wasn’t staying, it wasn’t technically his team, but he knew how much he needed them and he figured this Dean needed them too. He remembered waking up in that empty room filled with nothing but memories of dead people. 

Bobby was dead. Cas had been out of commission. He just wanted them all together again and now that wasn’t going to happen. Adam had gone to ground and none of the rest of them knew enough to worry about that. 

Lindsey patted his shoulder as they left the garage, passing him on the way to the library. Sam was already halfway down the hall and Cas hovered at his side. He hadn’t really left Dean since they’d found him and Dean couldn’t blame him. It had to be traumatic to fall, and to be left without his grace as well, and they were about the only humans Cas knew. 

Sam and Lindsey paused just inside the library and Dean quickened his step to catch up with them. The bunker was supposed to be secure, but Dean didn’t trust anything to work one hundred percent. He’d been caught short way too many times. 

“What’s going on?”

Lindsey stepped aside, letting Dean through, and he looked across the way to see Tony, Charlie and Kevin chatting with Adam at one of the tables. Kevin and Charlie looked nervous, but Tony looked the kind of at ease he could only manage when he was undercover and it was part of the act. 

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said, sinking into one of the chairs and looking at Adam. “If you were going to come here anyway, why not come with us when we found you?”

Adam shrugged, that annoying smirk of his firmly in place, not giving Dean any clue what was going on. 

“Had to know what you were really about, didn’t I?”

“Of course you did,” Dean said with an annoyed sigh. “How did you even know where to find us?”

“I joined the Men of Letters in the early 50s.”

Dean wondered if there was any secret group Adam hadn’t joined, and how many more they knew nothing about. 

“Of course you...” Dean began then cut himself off. He sat up straighter, staring at Adam. If Adam had known about this place for decades, then his Adam must have known about it too. Why had he never said anything? “So you’ve known about this place since then. Why haven’t you come here before now?”

“There was an... incident. It was locked up and I believed the key was lost.”

Abaddon. The knight of hell that had targeted their grandfather, according to Sam, and who had wiped out the Men of Letters. Sam hadn’t said anything about a key, but there had been a lot to catch him up on and plenty of distractions. 

“But you came here now.”

“Kronos I can deal with, but when you tracked me down, you didn’t just lead him to me, the angels followed as well. And they can be annoyingly persistent.”

Dean winced, all too aware of how much they’d pursued Adam and that was before the lot of them had fallen and literally had nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to. There wasn’t even a Gabriel here to split the angels’ attention.

“It was a long trip. I’ve got to make a pit stop,” Sam said, gesturing vaguely toward the door that led to their living quarters. Dean frowned but let him go.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I could use a drink.” Tony pushed his chair back and stood with a sigh. “Anyone else interested?”

There were some murmurs of agreement and Tony nodded, heading out the library. He paused at the door. 

“Hey McDonald, you’re helping me.”

Lindsey looked like he was going to object, but Adam leant back in his chair and smirked, eyebrow raised in a way that couldn’t have been designed more to piss Lindsey off if Adam knew him as well as they did in his universe. Lindsey glared but followed Tony into the kitchen area. 

Dean narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything. That was definitely Tony’s undercover act. And Adam had made a point to come to the bunker before the rest of them. Something was going on. Something he didn’t know about. And they were bringing Lindsey in on it. 

“So, Winchester, why were you looking for me?” Adam asked, leaning forward again.

“I told you. We’re like family in an alternate universe.”

“And?”

Adam could be as cynical as Lindsey, he was just better at hiding it behind his persona. Of course he would suspect a stranger who knew his secrets of having an ulterior motive. 

“And I don’t leave family behind. Not for anything.”

“Not even alternate universes.”

“Apparently not.”

Lindsey had been hiding from Wolfram and Hart, Adam had been running from demons and angels both, and Tony had been a hairsbreadth away from burnout. Dean knew what they were capable of together, he couldn’t leave them to suffer on their own.

Adam stared at him a moment longer, judging him with the weight of millennia of experience with human behaviour. Dean stared back, secure in the knowledge that he was sincere. Finally, Adam leaned back again.

Sam returned to the library, shuffling through the door with his hands in the air. Dean was on his feet just as Lindsey followed Sam through the door, one hand fisted in Sam’s shirt, the other holding an angel blade to his back. Tony followed the both of them. Charlie and Kevin moved from their seats to the far end of the room, away from a potential confrontation, like this had all been co-ordinated.

Dean only had a knife on him. The bunker was supposed to be safe. His team was supposed to be trustworthy. Tony split from the other two, nearing Dean, but staying out of reach. A reasonable strategy with the way Dean was feeling.

“I think you should give him a chance to explain,” Tony said with a nod in Adam’s direction.

“Cas,” Dean said and the angel readied himself for a fight.

“Castiel,” Adam said, rising slowly to his feet. “You are surviving on borrowed grace. There is more going on than you perceive.” His gaze turned to Dean, hazel eyes intense as they stared at each other. “Trust me.”

Cas looked between the two, clearly torn. Dean stared a moment longer, before he stepped back, dropping his stance. Beside him, Cas relaxed too. 

“McDonald,” Adam said, striding toward them. Lindsey pushed Sam forward and he stumbled a few steps, coming to a stop as light flashed around him. Dean looked up at the ceiling to see a circle drawn there designed to trap an angel.

“What?” Dean said. “There’s an angel riding my brother? How long has there been an angel riding my brother?”

“You didn’t know?” Lindsey asked, sounding honestly surprised. Dean glared at him, already regretting bringing them all together. 

Adam stopped at the edge of the circle, waiting for Sam to turn to face him. Sam straightened slowly and turned, his expression blank and emotionless in a way Dean hadn’t seen before.

“Gadreel,” Adam said, folding his arms.

“I didn’t think you would recognise me without your grace. It’s been a long time,” the angel possessing Sam said. “Since your fall.”

“I would point out the irony, but apparently falling first just made me a target.”

“Our brothers and sisters are lost. They seek guidance.”

Tony rested a hand on his shoulder and Dean hadn’t even realised he’d curled his hands into fists and was moving forward. To do what, he wasn’t sure, but he needed to do something.

“And you? What do you seek?” Adam asked.

“That is a long story.”


	8. Chapter 8

“If it’s a long story, you might want to start at the beginning,” Lindsey said, leaning against the long table in the middle of the library. Tony settled in next to him, straddling the back of a chair as they watched Gadreel in Sam’s body. “Not all of us have eternity.”

“At the moment none of us has eternity.”

“Why don’t you start with why you’re hiding?” Tony said, leaning on his crossed arms against the back of the chair. Gadreel looked down at his feet.

“He was tasked with guarding the Garden,” Adam said when Gadreen wouldn’t, or couldn’t, begin. 

“Gadreel let Lucifer into the Garden. It’s his fault. All of it,” Cas said, striding forward. Dean caught his arm, stopping him from marching right into the circle with the possibly dangerous angel. 

“Lucifer tricked me.” Gadreel looked at them one after the other imploringly. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Dean wanted to take Cas’s side. Usually he would rely on Cas’s insight with the angels, especially when Cas was clearly against the angel that had taken over his brother, but he also knew that Cas was still hurting over the fact that he was tricked into helping Metatron. Dean wasn’t too sure how objective he could be about this whole situation. 

“If he tricked you, then the majority of the blame seems to lie with Lucifer,” Tony said, standing up and circling Gadreel from a safe distance, his eyes narrowed as he watched the angel closely. Gadreel tensed, clearly wanting to turn to keep Tony in sight, but also not wanting to lose track of the more dangerous members of the team. 

“I tried to tell them that, but they wouldn’t listen. They imprisoned me and tortured me for thousands of years.”

As Gadreel spoke, Dean watched as Adam sidled up to Lindsey and began talking lowly in his ear. Lindsey’s frown deepened in annoyance but, the longer Adam spoke, the more he seemed to relax, until he was finally smirking and nodding along. 

“What about Sam? Gadreel’s lied to us and hidden from us. Why should we trust a word he says.”

Dean paced the length of the table, staring at Gadreel the entire time. 

“He made a mistake and spent thousands of years being tortured for it,” Tony said with a shrug. “I think the least we can do is hear him out.”

Dean didn’t want to do that, not with an angel who had taken over his brother and hidden who he was, lying to the Dean from his reality. He wasn’t family, not like the others. Dean didn’t owe him anything, especially when he wasn’t the Dean who made the deal, especially when he was riding Sam and Dean knew his brother would never have agreed to that, not after Lucifer. But there was something holding him back.

They’d all made mistakes. Chosen the wrong path. Hurt people. Killed people. Or caused them to be killed. In the end it was all the same. There had been consequences, serious ones, end of the world level consequences. Gadreel wasn’t really all that different to any of them. And Dean knew just how much angels could be judgemental dicks. 

“Fine,” he gritted out, turning away so he didn’t have to see Gadreel’s hope blossom on Sam’s face. 

“I have been healing your brother. There was extensive damage after the trials and he would not have survived without intervention.”

Gadreel looked open and earnest, and more than a little desperate, but Dean couldn’t trust that. It was too easy to let the expression being on Sam’s face influence him. Adam settled in next to Cas as Tony took another turn around Gadreel. 

“I’ve done nothing to harm him and stayed out of the way unless you, the other you that knew about me, needed help.”

“We don’t have any way of proving that.”

Gadreel shrugged and spread his hands wide.

“I can’t offer you anything more than my word.”

“How much healing does he still need?” Adam asked. When Dean glanced at him, Cas was no longer at his side. 

“It has been difficult. Being cut off from heaven has left me without most of my power, and I wasn’t in the best condition before that, but I have done what I can. He is still injured, but he will survive.”

“Where’s Cas?” Dean asked.

“He’s doing me a favour,” Adam said. It didn’t escape Dean’s notice that Lindsey was gone too.

And of course Cas had followed orders from an archangel, even a fallen one. He might be learning how to live with free will, but Adam was the angel with the most experience at it, and Cas had always admired him even when he was trying to hide it because Adam didn’t appreciate the sentiment. 

“Trust me,” Adam said with a smirk and Dean rolled his eyes. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with Adam would have told you that was a bad idea, but Dean knew better. There were few lengths Adam wouldn’t go to for people he considered his, and the team might not be his yet, but Adam had taken a chance on them. He was giving them a chance to prove themselves. The least Dean could do was give him the benefit of the doubt. 

“Okay.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at the easy acceptance, but Dean simply smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. 

“Alternate universe, you say.”

Dean shrugged, because he didn’t have any more proof to provide them. Maybe Adam hadn’t disbelieved him before, but he hadn’t exactly believed him either. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Dean asked instead.

They were interrupted by the flutter of wings and the return of Cas and Lindsey. They had a third man between them, tall and good looking, in an unconventional way. He looked around, wide-eyed, but not exactly surprised. 

“He’s agreed?” Adam asked. Lindsey nodded.

“What are you doing with my vessel?” Gadreel asked, stepping to the very edge of the circle. 

“It’s very simple. You get your vessel, we get Sam.” 

Adam was unassuming in his oversized hoodie, shoulders hunched and hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, no sign of any of his weapons. There was nothing in his words that spoke of threat, but somehow he exuded it none the less. Gadreel nodded and stepped back into the middle of the circle again. 

Lindsey moved forward, Gadreel’s vessel following slowly. The man looked around, staring at Sam with curiosity but no undue concern. Whatever else Gadreel had done, he clearly hadn’t mistreated his vessel as some angels did. 

Tony drew a knife from behind him and Dean had no idea where he’d managed to get it from, but admired the inclination either way. With a practiced movement, Tony threw the knife and it perfectly intersected one of the lines creating the circle that kept Gadreel in place. Gadreel stepped back, hands raised non-threateningly, as he stepped out of the circle.

“You will need to be ready, Castiel,” he said and the angel nodded. Gadreel turned to his vessel and looked at him solemnly. “Do you accept?”

“Yes,” the man said and Gadreel stepped forward. There was a bright flash of light so Dean had to shield his eyes and then he was leaping forward to catch Sam before he collapsed to the ground. Gadreel, now in his vessel, blinked a moment and then knelt next to Dean as he lowered an unconscious Sam to the floor. 

“Cas?”

“I’m here, Dean,” Cas said, kneeling next to him. He pressed a hand to Sam’s stomach and, after a moment, Gadreel joined him. Sam’s body spasmed and he groaned before collapsing back down. Everything was silent and then Sam shifted and opened his eyes. 

“Dean?” Sam blinked, looking at him and the angels in confusion. “What’s going on?”

“You’re all right now.”

“But I wasn’t?”

“Some complications from the trials apparently,” Dean said, not sure how much Sam would remember or not, and not having enough information himself to really fill in the blanks. He patted Sam’s shoulder and then reached out to help him to his feet. 

“Now what?” Gadreel asked, rising to his feet and then holding still as he waited for their verdict. 

“That’s up to you,” Adam said, arms crossing against his chest as he met Gadreel’s gaze unwaveringly. Dean let Adam take the lead with Gadreel. He was usually better at reading angels and if he saw something in Gadreel then Dean would trust him. It was difficult to blame Adam for seeing a parallel with an angel who had been punished overly harshly by the heavenly host. 

“I want... I want a chance to make things right.”

“You could just take your vessel and run. Find somewhere to hole up and ride it out.”

“I don’t want to hide any more. I want my name to be remembered for more than one act I was tricked into.”

Adam looked at Dean then and raised an eyebrow. Dean looked to Tony, who folded his arms and stared steadily. He didn’t want to accept Gadreel’s offer, didn’t want to let the angel that had tricked his alternate self and hidden from him. But he knew Adam and Tony, even if they didn’t really know him yet, and he trusted them. 

“We’re going to run out of space soon,” he said and Tony grinned at the tacit agreement.


End file.
